1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and a system for automatically producing a temporally processed image, which are capable of capturing a radiographic image, such as a front chest image into the system and, simultaneously, producing a temporally processed image such as a temporal subtraction image from a plurality of previously designated pairs of radiographic images so as to store the temporally processed image on a data storage unit.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional system for producing a temporally processed image, a pair of a current radiographic image and a previous radiographic image (the new image in time is referred to as a “current” image and the old image older than the new image in time is referred to as a “previous” image), such as current and previous front chest images, is captured into the system, and a temporally processed image is produced from the pair of current and previous images.
This technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-37074, a method and apparatus for detecting an interval change in temporally sequential chest images, and in Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-110939, an image aligning system and a system for performing processing between images. These techniques are popularly utilized in a research field of computer aided diagnosis.
The above described conventional system for producing a temporally processed image, however, has problems (1)˜(3) as follows:
(1) Since the conventional system must capture radiographic images set by set (or designate a pair of radiographic images already captured) so as to produce a temporally processed image, it is a heavy burden for a radiologist, such as a doctor, and requires a lot of time;
(2) In a case where the need for the temporally processed image, previously produced, is eliminated, a radiologist, such as a doctor, has to manually retrieve the temporally processed image to be eliminated so as to manually delete it; and
(3) When a doctor or the like manually deletes the temporally processed image, there is the possibility that the doctor or the radiologist unintentionally deletes a temporally processed image, which is not intended to be deleted.